Virgin Media price rise

[Trigger]

Had an E Mail today from Virgin Media telling me that my package was going up by £15 a month from 1st April so I phoned them . From Spain good job my calls are free in my O2 package, said I wanted to cancel my contract because of the price rise and they said they would reduce it to £7.50 per month, no thanks I said cancel it, and half an hour on the phone to India all done, wonder what deals will be around in May on our return to UK if any?

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Robbing barstewards, I need to ring and cancel, problem is we have a lot of stuff unwatched and you can't move it elsewhere.

 

[Campervanannie]

Had an E Mail today from Virgin Media telling me that my package was going up by £15 a month from 1st April so I phoned them . From Spain good job my calls are free in my O2 package, said I wanted to cancel my contract because of the price rise and they said they would reduce it to £7.50 per month, no thanks I said cancel it, and half an hour on the phone to India all done, wonder what deals will be around in May on our return to UK if any?

We have had an email from sky warning us of price hikes next month.

 

[marchie]

Had an E Mail today from Virgin Media telling me that my package was going up by £15 a month from 1st April so I phoned them . From Spain good job my calls are free in my O2 package, said I wanted to cancel my contract because of the price rise and they said they would reduce it to £7.50 per month, no thanks I said cancel it, and half an hour on the phone to India all done, wonder what deals will be around in May on our return to UK if any?

There have been 3 or more articles on the impact of CPI/RPI + 3.9% price increases in The Guardian over the last 4-6 weeks. The price rises are roughly 14%-17%+, depending on which measure of inflation is used by the individual company. Sky said key inflation items such as soaring energy prices had no real impact on ISP operating costs, and limited their price increase to around 8%, IIRC

The Competition & Markets Authority {'CMA'] is to launch an enquiry into whether these mid-contract price rises are advertised properly when people sign up to Internet & Phone Contracts, but, if the CMA finds against the ISPs, I'll be astounded. Eyebrows [well, maybe one] will be raised in outrage

Steve

 

[The laird]

They tried it with me told them not on just remove as ive been customer for years they've left it at the previous years price
I'm fed up with all the increases and now dont take any waffle if you have been a loyal and never not paid bills they can ram it if they cannot return the good will
it works sometimes but not all

 

[St3v3]

I had same, called and they changed it to £10 less than I'm paying now.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

This is the bit which make me glow red.

"As this annual price increase is provided for in your terms, there is no right to cancel given for this price increase from April 2024."

 

[marchie]

This is the bit which make me glow red.

"As this annual price increase is provided for in your terms, there is no right to cancel given for this price increase from April 2024."

And that's the area the Financial Conduct Authority will examine, Kev, it's prominence in the T&Cs, and whether the Sales Assistant points this out when people sign up to the deal initially. Probably find lots of mystery shoppers flooding the phone stores to test the system!

The last article I saw pointed out that O2, Virginmedia and EE are all one entity for control purposes, but remain separate for what they claim is 'brand identity values; a cycnic might conclude that it gives a veneer of obliqueness to avoid a Monopolies investigation. I couldn't possibly comment

Steve

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Go on, force yourself Steve.

 

[St3v3]

This is the bit which make me glow red.

"As this annual price increase is provided for in your terms, there is no right to cancel given for this price increase from April 2024."

Signing up for 18 months now will mean you could leave just a couple of months after the price increase, which isn't terrible I suppose.

 

[rambrose]

I was with Virgin for broadband and phone paying an extortionate £55 a month. Got an email saying it was going up but they did give me over a month to cancel without any fees.
Decided to go full fibre (Unfortunately it's just Talk Talk offering this in my area).
Once it eventually got installed I called to cancel Virgin. Before I spoke to anyone the automated voice was offering a £3 discount.
Wasn't interested in the "let's see what we can do" team and started the 30 days notice period.
A couple of days later they called me and offered me £18 month.
Gave them some grief that they need to treat existing customers better. I don't need this renewal agro.
Working partly from home I couldn't afford to be without internet but if you can hold your nerve you could end up with a fantastic deal.
Just to add this full fibre setup isn't great. The supplied Amazon Eero Pro 6 doesn't support older tech and they don't have an alternative. Wifi doesn't cover the whole house either. It's useable so its way down on the to do list.

 

[marchie]

I was with Virgin for broadband and phone paying an extortionate £55 a month. Got an email saying it was going up but they did give me over a month to cancel without any fees.
Decided to go full fibre (Unfortunately it's just Talk Talk offering this in my area).
Once it eventually got installed I called to cancel Virgin. Before I spoke to anyone the automated voice was offering a £3 discount.
Wasn't interested in the "let's see what we can do" team and started the 30 days notice period.
A couple of days later they called me and offered me £18 month.
Gave them some grief that they need to treat existing customers better. I don't need this renewal agro.
Working partly from home I couldn't afford to be without internet but if you can hold your nerve you could end up with a fantastic deal.
Just to add this full fibre setup isn't great. The supplied Amazon Eero Pro 6 doesn't support older tech and they don't have an alternative. Wifi doesn't cover the whole house either. It's useable so its way down on the to do list.

I don't regard any deal that has an inbuilt RPI or CPI +3.9% mid contract price increase built in as a great deal, but I'm old-fashioned. All ISPs make Del Boy Trotter look like a candidate for the sainthood

Steve

 

[Slowho]

Used Virgin for last 5 years as price went up and unable to stop constant sales calls from them I changed supplier for a cheaper deal from Smarty for unlimited deal for 20 quid a month. Far better and a 5 quid cheaper, faster internet and no nuisance sales calls..

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Used Virgin for last 5 years as price went up and unable to stop constant sales calls from them I changed supplier for a cheaper deal from Smarty for unlimited deal for 20 quid a month. Far better and a 5 quid cheaper, faster internet and no nuisance sales calls..

What was the TV like?

 

[marchie]

What was the TV like?

Dunno, we have only a Cooncil Telly, so if it ain't on Freeview, it can't be watched. Kev. But, on the bright side, Elaine and I each pay £10pm to Smarty for unlimited Calls and 50Gb [IIRC; we've never got anywhere near using the allowance so the upper limit is something I'd need to refer to the T&Cs to find, and that's with us using the internet for 14-15 hours each day]

Steve

 

[Trigger]

I have cancelled my Virgin contract and cut of is 29 th March, now virgin are offering me my same deal for? 37 was? £ 43 but I am ignoring them now spite my own face probably as I will no doubt be paying someone more than that when I get home in May and shop around for TV and Broadband how do these fire sticks or whatever they are called for TV work are they any good and cheap still need broadband I guess to make them work?

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I had a firestick there are some free channels but you do need the internet.

I had a Roku initially which is a similar thing.

Plenty used ones on Ebay too.

They plug into the HDMI port and they are powered but the USB port on the telly, doesn't need to be a smart TV but does need to have those ports.

 

[Slowho]

What was the TV like?

Its just a phone contract sim only great signal most places mostly use in van for YouTube unlimited calls and data

 

[Obanboy666]

Been on the phone tonight regarding the £7.00 increase I was notified about by email last week which also stated I could cancel my contract with no charge.
To cut a long story short, instead of the £7.00 increase I’m now paying £5.00 less than at present for 18 month with no increases guaranteed so well pleased with that.
Now have to get my head around my sky package which is also due to rise by £7.00 a month. I’ve already got huge loyalty discounts so reckon I may well struggle but I’ll have a good try.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

The best I could get out of them is a reduction down to £4 per month for two months, then we're at the end of our contract and can ring back and speak to retentions and see what they can do then.